carpenter



R. G. CARPENTER. lLLUMINATED SIGN. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. l9|6. RENEWED MAY I4, 19H). 1,310,688.

Patented July 22, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

R.G.CARPENTER ILLUMINATED SIGN.

APPLICATION F LED FEB- 23. 1916- RENEWED MAY I4. 1919.

@(452721: 513: I VCZZKZVQ/ZX Patented July 22, 1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

R. G. CARPENTER.

ILLUMINAIED SIGN. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. 1916- RENEWED MAY 14. 1919- 1,310,688.

Patented July 22, 1919.

3 SHEETSSHEET'3 O OOOGGQO fla /477W: (271%8/7 ferentree srarns ratrnnr RALPH G. CARPENTER, OF CHICAGO, ILLXNGES.

ILLUMINATED SIGN.

Application filed February 28, 1916, Serial No. 80,893.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RALPH G. CARPENTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Illuminated Signs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to illuminated signs and more particularly to signs having partially translucent fronts lighted by lamps placed behind said fronts. In its general aspects, my invention aims to provide a compact and inexpensive sign which may readily be varied as to its legend, which will simulate the effect of a much greater number of lamps than those actually employed, which will display a legend of far greater len h than the sign front; which will cause sue a legend gradually to travel across the face of the sign and automatically, but more speedily, to return to its starting point; which will extinguish legend-lighting lamps during the returning of the legend and which will light an auxiliary sign portion to hold the attention of the observer during the returning of the legend; which will enhance the legend-displaying both by lightrefractors and by shadow-producing elements disposed between the refractors; which will permit the legend-effecting ele- -ments to be cheaply constructed and readily varied either by punching perforations in opaque spots on translucent sheets; in which the light from a relatively small number of lamps will first he projected in substantially parallel paths through portions of the said elements and in which the projected light will thereafter be distributed by lenses or other refractors. in one of its aspects, my invention also aims to provide a. luminous sign in which a rigidly held legend-bearing stencil or translucentsign may readily be inserted or replaced, while in other aspects it aims to provide simple means controlled by the Winding of a long stencil for automatically reversing the direction of travel of the stencil and for simultaneously therewith controlling the lighting of the various portions of the sign. More particularly, my invention aims to provide a. sign in which a traveling legend is projected through a translucent stencil stretched between a pair Specification of Letters Patent.

Renewed May 14-, 1919. Serial No. 297,135.

of reels, to provide means for alternately Winding the stencil upon one or the other of the reels, to provide simple means for reversing the direction of travel of the stencil whenever the latter reaches the limit of its movement in either direction, and to provide current-controlling means associated with the said reversing means for controllino' one or more sets of lamps. Further objects will appearfrom the following spe cification and from the accompanying drawings, in which latter Figure 1 is a perspective view of a. sign embodying my invention.

4 ig. 2 is an enlarged rear elevation of the sign of Fig. 1 with the rear plate of the casing removed.

Fig. 3 is a simplified diagram of the circuit connections for the operating and lighting mechanism.

Fig. l is an enlarged fragmentary hori zontal section through a sign equipped with a modified form of film operating mechanism.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged and fragmentary vertical section taken along the line 55 in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary detail showing portions of the reel-reversing mechanism.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal sec tion looking toward the front of the sign from the line 7-7 in Fig. 4.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary front elevation of the sign.

Fig. 9 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section taken along the line 9-9 in Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a vertical transverse section through a simplified embodiment of my invention.

Figs. 11 and 12 are vertical sections through alternative types of sign fronts.

Fig. 13 is a fragmentary elevation of a legend-controlling film having opaque spots on a transparent background.

In the embodiment of Fig. 1, the sign of my invention is housed in a casing having a main portion 1 containing a. film, film rolls and the lamps for lighting the film; a lower portion 2 inclosing the motor and reversing mechanism; and an upper auxiliary portion 30 inclosing a normally unilluminated sign front 29 and a lamp 128 for lighting thelatter at. certain times. The sign front itself may be constructed in a variety of different ways, as for example by providing a frame 3 sum iprting a metal plated equipped with aumformly and rather elosely spaced perforations. Mounted in alinement with each of these perforation (as for example in Fig. 5)) is a glass retracting element .3 which will act as a lens in producing a bulls-eye.

lighting efleet when light is projected through this element from the rear of the plate 4. Mounted within the main easing 1 are lamps 6, the light of which lamps is projected substantially horizontally through the said perforations by a' reflector 7 (Fig. 1),.01' substantially along the axisof the :refraet ing elements lnterposed between the lamps 6 and the said elements 5'is a suitable legend-bearing member, such as a film 8 made of opaque material and having the desired legend formed thereon by perforations corresponding substantially in size and spac ing with the said perforations in the'metal plate 4. hen this film is so placed that the,

legend-perforations on it aline axially with certain of the perforations in the metal plate 4, the light projected for \ardl y by the lamps 6 and the reflector 7 will issnethrough the said alined perforations in the metal front plate and the emitted light will he distributed by the lenses or refractors 5, thereby causing the operative lenses to produce the effect of so many miniature lamps.

At the same time, all perforations in'the metal plate which do not aline with the film perforations will be screened from the lamps by the opaqueness of the film, hence the illuminated and scintillating refractors .will contrast strikingly with a dark background. Then by moving the film a'dista-nce equal to the spacing between con-secutive perforations in the metal plate 4, the same legend will be displayed through another set of. these perforations and so on until the end of the perforated plate is reached. .ll n this way, a legend will appear to travel along the sign and while one portion disappears at one end of the sign front, new portions willbe brought into view from the other end of the sign, the effective length of the displayed legend depending on the length of the film, 8, which is stretched between rolls 9 and 10.

To actuate the film for this purpose, I provide suitable mechanism, which latter may be mounted in the main casing (as in Fig. l) or inclosed in an adjoining casing as in Figs. 1 and 2. Thus in Figs. 4, 5 and 6 the reels 9 and 10 are connected by bevel gears 11 to horizontal shafts 12 and 13, which in turn are connected by suitable gearin to gears 14 and 15 adapted interchangeably to mesh with a pinion 16. This pinion is fast upon a pinion shaft 17 driven through gears 18 by anelectric motor 19, the shaft 17 being pivotally"'-mounted (Fig. 5) so that it can be moved to bring the pinion 16 into mesh with either the gear 14 or the gear 15. The last named gear has an movement of the pinion shaft 17, the latter maybe connected to an armature 18 pivoted between two pairs of electro-magnets 19 and 20, the wlndings of which magnets may be in parallel with each other and in series with "-the motor 19, as shown dlagrammatically in'Fig. 3. Then current may be sent alternately through one or the other "of these windings thereby energizing the corresponding one of the electromagnets and causing the film either to be reeled slowly,

in one direction or rap-idly in the reverse di rection. The switchingmechanism itself is desirably controlled by the amount of film on the :respective reels", as for instance by a slide 21 carrying rollers 22;bearing respectively against the. portions of the film wrapped uponthe respective reels. By providing a turnbuckle 22' in this slide,-the latter can readily be adjusted to eausethc rollers 22 to bear lightly and continuously against the film portions on the respective re'elsyconsequently when the film is-being wound upon the right hand reel in Fig. 2,

the slide 21 will gradually be moved to the left until it actuates the switch 23 whereupon the latter changes the driving connections and causes the film to be wound in the opposite direction upo'nthe left hand reel until the slide 21 is moved sufficiently far to the right to actuate theswitch 23 in the opposite direction. To avoid spar-king, I preferably provicle a spring-actuated snap switch,

as indicated for example in Fig. 3 which shows a throw over spring 24 interposed between the operating arm'25 of the switch and the slide 21. This diagram showsthe connections while the film is being slowly moved across the sign to give' the effect of a socalled walking letter sign lighted by the lamps 6. Vhen the slide 21 has moved sufficiently in direction of the arrow 26 to cause the ends of the spring 24 to pass the axis of the arm 25, thisspring will snap the arm over into the position shown in dotted lines, thereby switching the current from one electromagnet to the other. During this switching, the other arm 27 disconnects the lamps 6 from the circuit, thereby extinguishing the main sign so as not to cause an objectionable flickering while the film is being rapidly returned to its initial disposition. To hold the attention of observers while the sign proper is thus darkened, the arm 27 of the switch may also be employed for controlling an auxiliary lamp 28 mounted in the auxiliary casing 30 having a sign front 29 equipped with asuitable attention-demandin legend, such as Just a moment.

owever, I do not wish to be limited to this .use of an auxiliar attention-compelling sign, nor to the use 0 refracting lenses and a slide-operated switch, nor to other of the details herein disclosed, it being obvious that the construction and arrangement might be varied in many Ways without departing from the spirit of my invention. For example,.the separate refractors of Fig. 9 might be replaced by a single plate 31 equipped with such elements as in Fig. 11 and these elements mightbe facets instead of lenses. Or, the lens effects might be formed upon a single glass plate 32 as in Fig. 10, in which latter case opaque intermediate portions can be secured by blackening the rear parts 33, thus also producing the shadow effects be tween successive alinements with the legendperforations, which shadow effects by their contrast heighten the brilliant scintillating effect of my sign. Or a simple translucent glass plate might be employed as in Fig. 12. So also, the construction'might be reversed by employing a translucent film 34 having opaque spots defining the legend and spaced to match the refractor spacing, as in Fig. 13.

Moreover, I do not wish to be limited to the use of a traveling film, as the imitation myriad lamp efiect may be produced by my method in a simple and cheap sign, such as Fig. 10 in which a legend-carrying member 35 is supported in a fixed position. This member 35 preferably is so held that it can readily be replaced, thereby permitting the displayed sign legends to be varied by simply withdrawing this member and substituting another. With either the stationary or traveling type of my sign, it will be obvious that the desired legends can readily be punc 1ed upon cheap paper, thereby reducing both the first cost and the cost of varying the displayed legends.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a luminous sign, a front having a plurality of translucent elements arranged thereon in standardized spacing, a source of light, an opaque member therebetween having perforations corresponding in spacing to certain of said elements, all of said perforations being adapted to aline simultaneously with translucent elements of the said front when the opaque member is in any one of a number of different positions spaced from each other by a distance equal to the standardized spacing between the said elements, and means for moving the opaque member with respect to said front. I

2. In a luminous sign, a pair of casings, each equipped with a partially translucent front, separate sources of light for the respective casings, means for causing a signlcgend to travel across one of said fronts alternately in opposite directions, and means for alternately lighting one or the other sources of light. according as the legend is traveling in one direction or the other.

3. In a luminous sign, a partially translucent front, lighting means for illuminating said front, means for causing a sign-legend to travel across the said front alternately in opposite directions, means associated with the last named means for actuating the lighting means when the legend is traveling in one direction and extinguishing the lighting means when the legend is traveling in the other direction, and auxiliary sign means for holding the attention of the observer while the legend is traveling in the last named direction.

4. In a luminous sign, a screen having a plurality of uniformly spaced translucent areas arranged thereon in standardized spacing, a source of light, an opaque member between said screen and said source of light having perforations corresponding in spacing to certainof said areas, all of said perforations being adapted toaline. simultaneously with translucent areas of the said screen when the opaque member is in any one of a number of different positions spaced from each other by a distance equal to the standardizedspacing between the said areas, and means for moving the opaque member with respect to said screen.

RALPH G. CARPENTER. 

